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The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

At long last an official release of the Smile sessions; not Brian's remake but the actual thing.

Greatest album of the decade? It's damn entertaining, that's for sure. I'm just not sure how to rate something like this and whether or not to add it to my lists.. it would be somewhere in the top 100 of all-time though.

Anyone else listened to it yet? It's streaming at Spinner.

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

OK, let me be the first to to ask for a ruling: will it count as a new album? I assume the answer would be yes, because it's never -officially- existed in its intended form before now. Kind of like Bob Dylan's Live 1966 (the legendary "Albert Hall" bootleg that finally saw the legal light of day in 1998).

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

Gotta bump this...this album is astounding, and is heading straight to all-time status for me. Anyone else as enthralled?

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

Yeah, definitely album of the year for me.

Also, in answer to Harold's question, I assume it will be eligible.

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

We really shouldn't be considering it a 2011 album though, should we? It's a 1967 album. Bootlegs have been circulating around for years. It just happened not to be commercially released until now.

I'll pick it up, and I'll probably love it, but I'm certainly not putting on my 2011 list.

It should also be considered that it's not critically on an even playing field as new releases. It gets all the critical benefits of having been released in 1967 and 44 years of expectation. It's the same as if you're listening to Revolver for the first time: You've never heard it before but you know very well what other people think of it so you're not going to judge it the same way. Any other new release is 'new information', this is old information.

So, we should leave the 2011 ballots to albums that can compete on an equal playing field.

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

The album is fantastic, though I agree...calling it a 2011 album is hard...

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

It has never been released though, so technically it should be eligible. If we don't allow this album we must remove Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963, How The West Was Won, Mingus At Antibes, Live at the It Club, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert, Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall, and probably a few more. Granted, those are all live albums, but it's not really that different. Recorded at one time, released at another.

Also, I reckon the fact that several critics won't list it due to its nature will be enough of a disadvantage. This album, if released in 1967, would have indubitably been in the top 100 of all time. That won't happen now that it's released in 2011, so if anything it's at a disadvantage.

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

Stephan
It has never been released though, so technically it should be eligible. If we don't allow this album we must remove Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963, How The West Was Won, Mingus At Antibes, Live at the It Club, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert, Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall, and probably a few more. Granted, those are all live albums, but it's not really that different. Recorded at one time, released at another.

Also, I reckon the fact that several critics won't list it due to its nature will be enough of a disadvantage. This album, if released in 1967, would have indubitably been in the top 100 of all time. That won't happen now that it's released in 2011, so if anything it's at a disadvantage.


This is very true. Look at Nirvana's Live at Reading release two years ago. It was I believe the best reviewed album of the year, with 4 1/2 and 5 star ratings across the board, but it didn't make many lists, and thus isn't even a bubbler.

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

BillAdama
We really shouldn't be considering it a 2011 album though, should we? It's a 1967 album. Bootlegs have been circulating around for years. It just happened not to be commercially released until now.


Again, though, I have to go back to Dylan's Live 1966 as a benchmark. For 32 years, it was the most famous and sought-after bootleg in rock history, and presumably by the time it was finally officially released in 1998 a great many people were already familiar with it (the electric half, at least). It was still considered a 1998 album - it landed at #3 on the Pazz & Jop list, and it probably wouldn't rank as highly as it does on AM if it hadn't made so many EOY lists.

We'll have to see how SMiLE is handled in this regard - the EOYs will start coming in soon enough, and if the album shows up on a significant number of lists (as a ranked entry, not some kind of "special mention") it'll have to be considered a 2011 release.

Here's an intriguing question: will Brian Wilson's 2004 version start to see its acclaim diminish now that "the real thing" is available? (Even though, as the liner notes take pains to point out, that album provided the template for constructing the new release.)

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

Stephan
It has never been released though, so technically it should be eligible. If we don't allow this album we must remove Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963, How The West Was Won, Mingus At Antibes, Live at the It Club, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert, Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall, and probably a few more. Granted, those are all live albums, but it's not really that different. Recorded at one time, released at another.

Also, I reckon the fact that several critics won't list it due to its nature will be enough of a disadvantage. This album, if released in 1967, would have indubitably been in the top 100 of all time. That won't happen now that it's released in 2011, so if anything it's at a disadvantage.


In that case, I would like to append Passion Of Joan Of Arc to my 1980 film ballot.

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

BillAdama
In that case, I would like to append Passion Of Joan Of Arc to my 1980 film ballot.
Not the same thing; Passion was actually released in 1928, it just went missing and reappeared in 1981.

I'm with Harold on this one, I think the critics will decide how to handle this one, and I very much doubt it will be in the top 3 for the year, even though in terms of quality it probably should.

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

I just opened this thread. I think we should handle it as a regular 2011 album for now, and maybe make adjustments later if deemed necessary.

Perhaps this album will occur in a lot of all-time lists, and sometimes be chosen over Pet Sounds. Then maybe PS will have a hard time staying at #1 as a result of this release.

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

I haven't heard the album yet, although I probably will shortly, so can anyone tell me how it measures up to Brian Wilson's solo album "SMiLE" (2004), where he rerecorded the entire "SMiLE" album the way he wanted it to be. Looking at the tracklisting of both albums, they seem to be nearly identical. Also, which one is better?

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

Stephan
BillAdama
In that case, I would like to append Passion Of Joan Of Arc to my 1980 film ballot.
Not the same thing; Passion was actually released in 1928, it just went missing and reappeared in 1981.

I'm with Harold on this one, I think the critics will decide how to handle this one, and I very much doubt it will be in the top 3 for the year, even though in terms of quality it probably should.


I'm not saying it shouldn't be included, I'm just saying it shouldn't be tagged '2011'. I mean, what's the limit? If you found a Bach symphony that was never performed, recorded it, and threw it in a jewel case with nice plastic wrapping, would that make it a 2011 release? There are German films that were suppressed by the Nazis and not released until decades later, but they're still prewar films.

It should be judged against 1967 albums, not 2011 albums. It is simply not a 2011 generation.

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

Just heard it.
Like it a lot.
Most likely album of the year.
Really absurd that it wasn't released in 1967.
Should nevertheless be regarded as "ordinary" 2011 album.
But yes, let's compare it with other sixties albums.
In other words: Whether 1967 or 2011, just enjoy the beautiful music and SMILE.

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

Nick
I haven't heard the album yet, although I probably will shortly, so can anyone tell me how it measures up to Brian Wilson's solo album "SMiLE" (2004), where he rerecorded the entire "SMiLE" album the way he wanted it to be. Looking at the tracklisting of both albums, they seem to be nearly identical. Also, which one is better?


As I noted earlier, when the current release was being prepared, the track listing of the 2004 version was utilized as the template to determine what the preferred track listing would have been in 1967 - because SMiLE was never completed, they never reached the stage of finalizing the running order. So they are, in fact, more or less identical.

As to which one is better: as much as I like the 2004 album, I'm afraid it's no contest. Wilson's version is a meticulous, decades-after-the-fact reconstruction; the new release is the genuine article, as recorded in the full flower of Wilson's genius before he retreated into the shell from which - as well as he appears to be doing these days - he's never 100% fully emerged. To a certain extent, listening to the 2004 SMiLE from here on out is going to be a little like listening to a tribute band.

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions
Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

I side with the 1967 side of the debate. It would feel very strange listing this in my EOY rankings, but not so weird listing it in my 1967 and all-time rankings.

I just don't think many critics will list it for 2011. Archival/reissues often get very high scores on Metacritic but get no attention in EOY polls, and I think this will be another example of that.

But really, this shouldn't be the main point of discussion--the fantastic music should be. This version of "Heroes and Villains" is incredible, and is becoming one of my favorite Beach Boys songs.

Re: The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

Jackson
But really, this shouldn't be the main point of discussion--the fantastic music should be. This version of "Heroes and Villains" is incredible, and is becoming one of my favorite Beach Boys songs.


The entire second "movement" - from "Wonderful" through "Surf's Up" - may very well be the most beautiful music of Wilson's career. Or anyone's, for that matter.

It took me a long time to "get" "Surf's Up." For years, I knew it only as the SMiLE leftover that was re-recorded as the closing and title track of the Beach Boys' second-most-acclaimed album, and I always found it kind of pretentious and overrated. I still think it's kind of pretentious - I confess, I'm not a fan of Van Dyke Parks's lyrics in general - but hearing it within the context for which it was originally intended (first on the 2004 version and now here), it's become one of my favorite songs.